For decades within the psychological community, it has been said that the twentieth century would go down as the "Freudian Century" of thought, mind, and ideals. Considered by many a revolutionary of modern psychology, Sigmund Freud was an intellect that began a scientific revolution, or paradigm shift, by introducing a concept called psychoanalysis in the late nineteenth century. A paradigm is a system of assumptions based on theories that a scientific community uses to define their field of study. When a paradigm shift occurs, the innovative concept is so unique that it is either rejected or received in totality. When Freud's idea was accepted, his colleagues in the scientific community claimed it as truth and thus rejected the preceding idea. By throwing away the theories of Freud's contemporaries, the world grasped a theory so original that few since have had such an influence on the way the mind is perceived. Considering the nature of the so-called Freudian revolution of psychological thought, it seems that the essence of Freud's ideals lies not in the discovery of new facts but in the process of discovering new ways of interpreting man's emotions, motives, and mind.
When Freud introduced the concept of the unconscious realm, the mind's mode of operation had been a subject of confusion and debate in the scientific community. According to many, "it was Freud who was largely responsible for elevating our interpretations of human behavior to the rational ideas of reason and science" (Hock 230). Freud's theory of psychoanalysis is, to this day, a theory geared toward treating psychological disorders of the mental life and behavior of people. It began in response to patients whose symptoms, although genuine, were being misdiagnosed by psychologists. Seeing the need for a reformation in the way psychologists treated patients, Freud investigated the inner workings of the abnormal mind by clinically probing it to find the heart of human conduct.
